Happy Independence Day!
This month instead of an article from me, I have asked Mark Lee, President of The Paragon, to inform you about House Bill #444.
Stay cool—Until next month,
God Bless you,
Nancy
At the request of our state trade association, Kentucky Assisted Living Facilities Association (KALFA), House Bill 444 was introduced by Representative Susan Westrom (Lexington) on February 16. It passed both the House and the Senate unanimously, and Governor Beshear signed it on March 30. The new law takes effect on July 15. The changes to the law are very significant, and positively impact seniors residing in assisted living communities across the Commonwealth.
Some of the highlights are:
Now medications may be stored in a manner requested in writing by the resident or resident’s designee and that is permitted by the assisted living community’s policies. Current law has mandated that the resident always have access to his or her medications. This important change will permit, but not require, a resident or the resident’s representative to ask The Paragon to retain the key to the medication drawer in the apartment, rather than the resident having it. If a resident is concerned about forgetting whether he or she took medications at a given time and, as a result, perhaps being at risk of mistakenly over-medicating, the most appropriate solution may be to request that The Paragon retain the key and assist at the appointed times.
Additionally, if medications are in unit dose packaging or are placed in a pill organizer by the resident, or a designated representative or licensed health care professional not affiliated with the assisted living community (usually a pharmacy), our staff members will be able to remove the medication and hand it to the resident. Resident Assistants will also be able to apply over-the-counter lotions and ointments. They will be able to guide a resident’s hand, as well as steady it, when the resident is self-administering medications.Prior to the new law, staff members could only steady the hand, not guide it.
We will have copies of the changes to the law available if you would like to read them for yourself. I drafted the bill and worked with a small group of other assisted living leaders across the state to accomplish this much-needed re-write of Kentucky’s assisted living statute. We also worked closely with the Department for Aging and Independent Living in Frankfort to develop changes to the regulations necessitated by the new law. Those changes have been filed but won’t take effect until September. Between now and then, we will continue getting more details to you. We believe that these changes will benefit many residents of The Paragon.
